Present day mobile platforms, such as aircraft (manned and unmanned), spacecraft and even land vehicles, often require the use of an antenna aperture for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic wave signals. The antenna aperture is often provided in the form of a phased array antenna aperture having a plurality of antenna elements arranged in an X-Y grid-like arrangement on the mobile platform. Typically there is weight that is added to the mobile platform by the various components on which the radiating elements of the antenna are mounted. Often these components comprise aluminum blocks or other like substructures that add “parasitic” weight to the overall antenna aperture, but otherwise perform no function other than as a support structure for a portion of the antenna aperture. By the term “parasitic” it is meant weight that is associated with components of the antenna that are not directly necessary for transmitting or receiving operations.
Providing an antenna array that is able to form a load bearing structure for a portion of a mobile platform would provide important advantages. In particular, the number and nature of sensor functions capable of being implemented on the mobile platform could be increased significantly over conventional electronic antenna and sensor systems that require physical space within the mobile platform. Integrating the antenna into the structure of the mobile platform also would eliminate the adverse effect on aerodynamics that is often produced when an antenna aperture is mounted on an exterior surface of a mobile platform. This would also eliminate the parasitic weight that would otherwise be present if the antenna aperture was formed as a distinct, independent component that required mounting on an interior or exterior surface of the mobile platform.